The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope(FAST)Core Array is a proposed extension of FAST,integrating 24 secondary 40-m antennas implanted within 5 km of the FAST site.This original array design will c...The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope(FAST)Core Array is a proposed extension of FAST,integrating 24 secondary 40-m antennas implanted within 5 km of the FAST site.This original array design will combine the unprecedented sensitivity of FAST with a high angular resolution(4.3"at a frequency of 1.4 GHz),thereby exceeding the capabilities at similar frequencies of next-generation arrays such as the Square Kilometre Array Phase 1 or the next-generation Very Large Array.This article presents the technical specifications of the FAST Core Array,evaluates its potential relatively to existing radio telescope arrays,and describes its expected scientific prospects.The proposed array will be equipped with technologically advanced backend devices,such as real-time signal processing systems.A phased array feed receiver will be mounted on FAST to improve the survey efficiency of the FAST Core Array,whose broad frequency coverage and large field of view(FOV)will be essential to study transient cosmic phenomena such as fast radio bursts and gravitational wave events,to conduct surveys and resolve structures in neutral hydrogen galaxies,to monitor or detect pulsars,and to investigate exoplanetary systems.Finally,the FAST Core Array can strengthen China's major role in the global radio astronomy community,owing to a wide range of potential scientific applications from cosmology to exoplanet science.展开更多
The Tianlai Cylinder Pathfinder is a radio interferometer array designed to test techniques for 21 cm intensity mapping in the post-reionization Universe,with the ultimate aim of mapping the large scale structure and ...The Tianlai Cylinder Pathfinder is a radio interferometer array designed to test techniques for 21 cm intensity mapping in the post-reionization Universe,with the ultimate aim of mapping the large scale structure and measuring cosmological parameters such as the dark energy equation of state.Each of its three parallel cylinder reflectors is oriented in the north-south direction,and the array has a large field of view.As the Earth rotates,the northern sky is observed by drift scanning.The array is located in Hongliuxia,a radio-quiet site in Xinjiang,and saw its first light in September 2016.In this first data analysis paper for the Tianlai cylinder array,we discuss the sub-system qualification tests,and present basic system performance obtained from preliminary analysis of the commissioning observations during 2016-2018.We show typical interferometric visibility data,from which we derive the actual beam profile in the east-west direction and the frequency band-pass response.We describe also the calibration process to determine the complex gains for the array elements,either using bright astronomical point sources,or an artificial on site calibrator source,and discuss the instrument response stability,crucial for transit interferometry.Based on this analysis,we find a system temperature of about 90 K,and we also estimate the sensitivity of the array.展开更多
基金supported by the National Key R&D Program of China(2022YFA1602904)the Chinese Academy of Sciences Project for Young Scientists in Basic Research(YSBR-063)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(12225303 and 12041301).
文摘The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope(FAST)Core Array is a proposed extension of FAST,integrating 24 secondary 40-m antennas implanted within 5 km of the FAST site.This original array design will combine the unprecedented sensitivity of FAST with a high angular resolution(4.3"at a frequency of 1.4 GHz),thereby exceeding the capabilities at similar frequencies of next-generation arrays such as the Square Kilometre Array Phase 1 or the next-generation Very Large Array.This article presents the technical specifications of the FAST Core Array,evaluates its potential relatively to existing radio telescope arrays,and describes its expected scientific prospects.The proposed array will be equipped with technologically advanced backend devices,such as real-time signal processing systems.A phased array feed receiver will be mounted on FAST to improve the survey efficiency of the FAST Core Array,whose broad frequency coverage and large field of view(FOV)will be essential to study transient cosmic phenomena such as fast radio bursts and gravitational wave events,to conduct surveys and resolve structures in neutral hydrogen galaxies,to monitor or detect pulsars,and to investigate exoplanetary systems.Finally,the FAST Core Array can strengthen China's major role in the global radio astronomy community,owing to a wide range of potential scientific applications from cosmology to exoplanet science.
基金support of the Astronomical Technology Center of National Astronomical Observatories of China(NAOC)support of Ministry of Science and Technology(MOST)(Grant No.2012AA121701)+10 种基金supported by MOST(Grant Nos.2016YFE0100300,and 2018YFE0120800)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(NSFC)(Grant Nos.11633004,11473044,and 11653003)the Chinese Academy of Sciences(CAS)(Grant No.QYZDJ-SSW-SLH017)support of the NSFC-CAS Joint Fund of Astronomy(Grant No.U1631118)partially supported by the National Key R&D Program(Grant No.2017YFA0402603)the CAS Interdisciplinary Innovation Team(Grant No.JCTD-2019-05)support of NSFC(Grant No.U1501501)the Tianhe-1 supercomputerpartially supported by the US National Science Foundation(NSF)Award(Grant No.AST-1616554)partial support from Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique(CNRS)via IN2P3&INSU,Observatoire de ParisIrfu/CEA。
文摘The Tianlai Cylinder Pathfinder is a radio interferometer array designed to test techniques for 21 cm intensity mapping in the post-reionization Universe,with the ultimate aim of mapping the large scale structure and measuring cosmological parameters such as the dark energy equation of state.Each of its three parallel cylinder reflectors is oriented in the north-south direction,and the array has a large field of view.As the Earth rotates,the northern sky is observed by drift scanning.The array is located in Hongliuxia,a radio-quiet site in Xinjiang,and saw its first light in September 2016.In this first data analysis paper for the Tianlai cylinder array,we discuss the sub-system qualification tests,and present basic system performance obtained from preliminary analysis of the commissioning observations during 2016-2018.We show typical interferometric visibility data,from which we derive the actual beam profile in the east-west direction and the frequency band-pass response.We describe also the calibration process to determine the complex gains for the array elements,either using bright astronomical point sources,or an artificial on site calibrator source,and discuss the instrument response stability,crucial for transit interferometry.Based on this analysis,we find a system temperature of about 90 K,and we also estimate the sensitivity of the array.